Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- 1 Introduction
- Part One Laying foundations: national and local elections
- Part Two Participation as integration
- Part Three Institutions as gateways
- 11 Creating the image of European Islam: the European Council for Fatwa and Research and Ireland
- 12 The political participation of Polish Muslim Tatars – the result of or the reason for integration? From Teutonic wars to the Danish cartoons affair
- 13 The Alevi quest in Europe through the redefinition of the Alevi movement: recognition and political participation, a case study of the FUAF in France
- 14 Leicester Muslims: citizenship, race and civil religion
- Part Four Breaking the bounds
- Notes on the contributors
- Index
14 - Leicester Muslims: citizenship, race and civil religion
from Part Three - Institutions as gateways
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- 1 Introduction
- Part One Laying foundations: national and local elections
- Part Two Participation as integration
- Part Three Institutions as gateways
- 11 Creating the image of European Islam: the European Council for Fatwa and Research and Ireland
- 12 The political participation of Polish Muslim Tatars – the result of or the reason for integration? From Teutonic wars to the Danish cartoons affair
- 13 The Alevi quest in Europe through the redefinition of the Alevi movement: recognition and political participation, a case study of the FUAF in France
- 14 Leicester Muslims: citizenship, race and civil religion
- Part Four Breaking the bounds
- Notes on the contributors
- Index
Summary
It does not matter what I say I am: I am European and I am British. But it does matter how you see me. If you do not see me as a European, if you do not see me as a Brit, it does not matter what I say. Whatever I will say, I will be a Muslim. (interview, 26 July 2011)
In the 1970s newspaper advertisements from Leicester advised migrants to go elsewhere as the city was already ‘full to the brim’ after the acceptance of more than 14,000 Asian Indian refugees, more than half of the total number of people expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin: ‘In your own interests and those of your family you should accept the advice of the Uganda Settlement Board and not come to Leicester, I think they said.’ (interview, 26 July 2011). Leicester was overwhelmed by its increased population and was desperately hoping to stop more massive migration. However, by 1981 the migrant population had risen to 59,709 and by 2001 to 100,000 (Open Society Institute 2010: 32). By 2012 it is estimated that Leicester will become the first city in Britain to have a white minority (interview, 23 July 2011).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Muslim Political Participation in Europe , pp. 277 - 296Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2013